


Snow

by melonbutterfly



Category: Star Trek RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-13
Updated: 2009-12-13
Packaged: 2017-10-13 00:09:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/130670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbutterfly/pseuds/melonbutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Fusion with Butterfly Effect)<br/><em>-but he has sworn himself that he will not go further the moment he arrives in a world where everybody is alright-</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Snow

Zach wakes up with a gasp, and he doesn't even give himself a moment to catch himself, sits up immediately and looks around his room. It doesn't look too weird, thankfully; after the many various states he has seen it in, he can barely remember how it looked originally—but then again, what does that even mean anymore? All of his lives have been just as real as the other, just as unreal. They've all been tampered with.

But that is not important now. He wants to jump up and dash out of the room, search for Chris— _please please please don't let him be dead, let him be okay, don't_ —but he would only stumble and fall the moment his memories catch up with him. And waiting for them is more sensible anyway, because until then, he actually has no idea if he even _knows_ Chris, much less anything else. He doesn't know who he himself is, and that is a lot more fundamental question than he ever imagined he'd face, because it is not meant superficially, he _means_ it. Is he a nerd now, a jock, is he handicapped, married, a criminal? They're all as possible as anything else, and-

Finally, finally, a splitting ache that feels like it's cracking his head open from the inside shoots through his brain; he grasps his head and tries not to scream, is vaguely aware he has fallen back on his bed and is twitching, all muscles tense and curling around himself while memories rush into his head like from a waterfall. He remembers, he remembers, he remembers-

It stops, and he is gasping for breath and for something else, instinctively wipes the blood away that comes trickling out of his nose while he tries to process what he now knows. He barely even remembers what he changed, which black-out he travelled back to; he is too fixed on the now, on filtering through his memories for news of his parents, his family—they're alright, and, oh _god_ , his father is actually alive here—of- but he has sworn himself that he will not go further the moment he arrives in a world where everybody is alright, that he'll stay no matter what his own life looks like if his mother and father and brother and-

Laughter outside pulls him out of his thoughts and new memories, and, desperately looking for a distraction from what he knows he is about to have to realise, he walks over to his window and looks out into the backyard of their neighbour's house, _Chris'_ house.

And there he is; Chris. Chris, looking carefree and happy, not empty and tired, not withdrawn and detached, not hateful; he actually looks happy, arms stretched wide as he tilts his head back and enjoys the first snow. Zach draws a breath and drinks in the sight, tries to ignore what he knows-

He both hears and feels the door of his own house—well, his parents' house—slam closed, and then he sees his brother's figure jogging over, and he's watching; it's like a car wreck, he knows what's going to happen and that it'll hurt like hell, but he can't move a muscle to stop it, to look away. Chris notices Jeff a moment before he walks up to him, and he smiles; smiles that wide, open smile Zach knows so well, doesn't know at all in this life. They kiss, the snowflakes whirling around them white and soft, and Zach turns away.


End file.
